We just disagree

 

 

When I first started reading card blogs, I didn't know there were so many kinds of collectors.

 

Growing up in the 1970s, there was basically one kind, or maybe two -- set collectors (those who could afford to complete the set) and team collectors (those who couldn't). Decades later I may have picked up on something called "a player collector" but I didn't know any of them.

 

In my insular collecting world -- basically the way it was for most collectors before the internet -- I figured everyone collected like I did. That's how my friends collected. And when I returned to the hobby in the early 2000s, the few guys I knew around work collected that way, too.

 

That all changed for me when I started writing a blog. Not only were there player collectors on top of everything I had known, but type collectors -- parallels, short-prints, autographs, relics, Hall of Famers, guys blowing bubble gum, standing for the National Anthem, featuring weird names, shown with teams they never played for, night cards, glow-in-the-dark cards, non-sports collectors, printing-error collectors, SO MANY COLLECTIONS.

 

It was eye-opening, and cool. But admittedly I didn't understand a lot of them. The one that's created the most confusion for me over the years is the generational stuff.  In many cases I've never understood the appeal of most of the innovations or types of cards of the mid-to-late 1990s. They are very different from the cards I grew up collecting. In some cases I instinctively recoil at the look of some of them.

 

But '90s collectors love them. That's great, because if every collector wanted 1970s cards I'd be one sad sack. It just shocks me how different we can be.

 

"There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy

There's only you and me, and we just disagree."

 

Maybe some '90s collectors don't know that reference. It's a '70s song. It sums up how people can peaceably co-exist despite having different views ... well, that's the way it once was, take a look around now.

 

But in the collector world, it still is that way. Take my periodic trades with Matt, a.k.a., operator of Cards Over Coffee, Sport Card Collectors and another blog I'm not recalling (sorry, I'm old, I grew up in the '70s).

 

Matt loves '90s cards, he writes about them all the time. Usually when I see them, all shiny, without backgrounds, featuring NFL and NBA guys, a part of me goes "I don't like." And conversely, many of the cards I like, he doesn't, for instance my 2025 Heritage post. He said the set never appealed to him, meanwhile, it's the only set I care about this year. But he did like one of the sparkly shiny cards, a card that I thought was weird as heck and unnecessary.

 

We just disagree. Still we have cards for each other.

 

I just got a six-pack of Dodgers from Matt. Four of the six cards I needed, that's extremely good for people who don't collect the same kind of cards. I shall count them down in order of appeal:

 

 

This shiny pair of I have already. Yes, I do like shiny cards, I've established that multiple times here. In fact I even like bizarre things like this:

 

I just added this for free from @hrderbyswing.bsky.social. Mostly I'm not a fan of the recent wavy trend, but I'll take them if the color appeals. I've mentioned how much I like aqua. And seeing them in person they have some charm (just slightly seasick from it).

 

 

Back to Matt's cards, not as interested in the sepia chrome parallels, but it's a Dodger card I didn't have so I gladly add it to the binder even with Syndergaard's 7-plus ERA for my team.

 

 

More shiny of the rainbow foil type, which you might of heard me say should have stayed in the '90s. Obviously many collectors like them, Topps keeps making them. Will Smith is batting .316, which would be 10th in the N.L. if the Dodgers didn't insist in using Austin Barnes so much, but maybe the rests are helping.

 

 

We're on a run of shiny! This card, from 2021 Gallery looks quite nice in shiny form, seems to class up the card even more, which already is classy with the borders and the picture subject. Give me all those Campys.

 

 

Final card and the best card! Wooo. Guys from my childhood! Guys from the '70s! I didn't know Matt had this kind of inventory. OK, so it's not a '70s card. The serial numbering gives it up. But I was just thinking that I needed more Davey Lopes cards and actually looked around before realizing I had most of them.

 

But not this one until now! Straight from the '70s, when I was watching Russell and Lopes turn two.

 

So this is how collectors can co-exist with different interests. In fact I already have a few cards for Matt that I have been setting aside, and that's how the hobby should exist.

 

There ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy.